Brown ROTC Coverage

15 October 1971 Harvard Crimson article "ROTC May Return to Ivy Schools".
28 September 1973 Harvard Crimson article "A Survey of ROTC's Status in the Ivies".
17 October 2001 Brown Daily Herald article "Harvard alumni petition university for reinstatement of ROTC program"
29 October 2001 Brown Daily Herald article "Despite recent events, ROTC not likely to return"
29 October 2001 Brown Daily Herald editorial "Not on our campus"
4 December 2001 Brown Daily Herald column "Brown should create a new, improved ROTC chapter" by Edward Mahaney-Walter.
6 February 2003 Brown Daily Herald article "Brown student participation in ROTC is expected to grow".
20 November 2003 Defense Business Practice Implementation Board meeting minutes. Note: The participants in the Defense Business Board meeting discussed "implementing ROTC programs at top tier schools". Dov Zakheim mentioned the effort to restore ROTC at Columbia and said "I spoke to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs and he is extremely interested ... We would like to get on the campus at Harvard. The President of Harvard has showed an interest in this." Bill Carr raised the possibility of restoring ROTC at Yale, citing the difficulty of Yale students traveling to ROTC programs at other colleges. He also discussed the tradeoff between getting top tier cadets and paying the high cost of ROTC scholarships to top tier schools. The group recommended to "approach Harvard's President first and if successful, then approach Yale, Columbia and Brown".
16 December 2004 Wall Street Journal article "At Ivy League Schools, ROTC, Long Banned, Plots a Comeback: Push May Stir Up Old Passions On These Elite Campuses; A Beachhead at Harvard". Note: The article discusses the movements to bring back ROTC to Harvard, Columbia, Yale and Brown, backed by the efforts of the Defense Business Board and a request from the military. See letters on 10 January.
21 January 2005 Associated Press article "Decades after Vietnam, ROTC making return effort to Ivy League". Note: The article suggests that the "Captain and a Sergeant" the military plans to post on the Harvard campus will be to run "a recruiting office".
15 February 2005 Brown Daily Herald article "Interest in ROTC minimal at Brown despite debate at other Ivies". Note: Currently there are only two cadets. Another student said "People at Brown are the type of people who should be filling the military in large numbers... I think the military is an institution we should be dedicated to repair and bring into the 21st century."
27 April 2005 Brown Daily Herald article "Brown and the military: 33 years after ROTC, Brown and the military still on unsteady terms". Note: Lt. Col. Steven McGonagle, professor of military science at Providence College said his Brown cadets are "the very best leaders of my battalion here," calling them "really world-class people and great leaders."
28 April 2005 Brown Daily Herald OpEd "Pro-ROTC doesn't mean pro-war" by Brian Barbata '68. Note: Barbata asks "why not "support our troops" by providing them with the best and brightest leaders?"
15 March 2007 Brown Daily Herald column "Reconsidering ROTC at Brown" by Brian Barbata '68. Note: Barbata notes that "For schools like Brown to blindly resist ROTC is a very short-sighted, non-productive stance which clearly has no effect other than to contribute to the gradual downgrading of the officer corps."
19 March 2007 Brown Daily Herald letter "ROTC should be welcome at Brown" by Paul Kechijian MD '61. Note: Kechijian observes that "Men and women interested in ROTC who attend Brown would enrich the University's diversity" and "Brown graduates who serve in the military would bring a diversity of concepts and ideas that might greatly benefit the military".
18 April 2007 Brown Daily Herald Opinion article "Brown and the ROTC?". Note: The article announced a panel discussion to take place that evening on ROTC and issues of the civilian-military divide.
26 April 2007 Brown Daily Herald article "Student group stirs up ROTC debate". Note: Jason Carr '09 and Josh Teitelbaum '08 are founding a pro-ROTC group "to take steps toward breaking down the campus community's isolation from what they say is an important social institution".
26 November 2007 Brown Daily Herald article "ROTC exchange with [Providence College] down to a lone student". Note: The article profiles the lone Brown student enrolled in ROTC, Adam Swartzbaugh '09. Keeping down the numbers is a lack of interest on the part of the Brown community and the attitude of the admissions office towards military service.
26 November 2007 Brown Daily Herald editorial "Bring back ROTC?". Note: The student newspaper of Brown University called for opposing ROTC because "it is unacceptable that discrimination against openly gay students would be allowed on our campus".
31 August 2008 Providence Journal letter "Brown’s dereliction of duty" by Paul C. Dulchinos. Note: LTC Dulchinos, until recently the Professor of Military Science at Providence College, notes that at Brown "Army ROTC four-year-scholarship candidates are systematically overlooked (either by coincidence or by design). The last successful four-year Army ROTC scholarship recipient admitted to Brown University was in 1996. He went on to graduate and be commissioned as an Army officer in 2000. Since then Brown has produced only three Army ROTC officers despite graduating more than 12,800 students over this same period. In addition, none of these students were admitted as freshmen Army ROTC scholars." See response on 16 September.
16 September 2008 Providence Journal letter "Brown and ROTC" by James Miller. Note: Miller, Dean of Admissions at Brown University, responds to a 31 August letter by Paul Dulchinos, until recently the Professor of Military Science at Providence College. He writes that Brown has "no admission quotas or set asides for any category of student", including ROTC students. He also notes that some Brown students train in an off-campus Marine officer program.
19 September 2008 Christian Science Monitor article "Will Ivy League Embrace R.O.T.C. Again?". Note: The article notes that although it is unlikely that many Ivy League graduates would enter ROTC programs, "the impact on the military, and on the East Coast elite that still struggles with military service, would be enormous".
22 September 2008 Providence Journal letter "Brown snubs ROTC" by Pete Haynsworth. Note: Haynsworth, who was a Navy ROTC graduate, details some benefits Brown University would have from having more ROTC students.
2 October 2008 Harvard Crimson article "Alumni Org Calls For Return Of ROTC". Note: The American Council of Trustees and Alumni sent letters to the governing boards of Harvard, Columbia, Yale, Brown and Stanford calling on them to reconsider their bans on ROTC. "Paul E. Mawn ’63, the chairman of Advocates for Harvard ROTC and a retired Navy captain, said in an interview yesterday that ACTA “may not understand what the realistic target is” and that the goal should be official recognition" by the Harvard Corporation, "not the opening of a ROTC branch at Harvard. “The reality is that there are so few students at ROTC anyway, so tomorrow if Harvard begged and pleaded the Pentagon to bring it back on campus, they wouldn’t,” Mawn said. “What has evolved around the country is core sites like MIT that service several different schools. MIT has the critical mass and good facilities and classrooms for the courses and drilling and other activities. There is no critical mass at Harvard.”". Mawn called upon Harvard to pay the overhead fee for Harvard students taking ROTC courses at MIT, currently paid by the alumni-funded "Friends of Harvard ROTC Trust".
15 October 2008 Brown Daily Herald article "National group wants trustees to reinstate ROTC". Note: Discussing the American Council of Trustees and Alumni letters to the governing boards of Brown, Harvard, Columbia, Yale and Stanford calling on them to reconsider their bans on ROTC, Brown's Dean of the College Katherine Bergeron said "There haven't been discussions about reinstating (ROTC) on campus", presumably referring to discussions in the administration or in public forums.
29 November 2008 Parade Magazine article "The Fight For ROTC". The article notes that "Although more than 600 colleges in the U.S. allow ROTC programs on campus, Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Brown, Tufts, Stanford, and the University of Chicago have maintained the bans they began in protest of the Vietnam War... “The seven schools who exclude ROTC produce many of our leaders, yet their students have the least contact with the military,” says Sean Wilkes (Columbia University ‘06), chair of Advocates for Columbia ROTC. "
12 February 2009 Brown Daily Herald editorial "U. should reinstate ROTC". Note: The student newspaper of Brown University endorses President Obama's call for colleges to welcome ROTC. Reversing their previous insistence on waiting for reform of the "don't ask, don't tell" law, the editors write that "Military recruiting on Brown's overwhelmingly liberal campus could provide gay soldiers with valuable allies in the ranks." See letter in response on 18 February.
18 February 2009 Brown Daily Herald letter "No ROTC with 'don't ask, don't tell' policy" by Chris Gang '09.5. Note: A former Herald executive editor responds to the 12 February editorial that reversed a previous position of the Brown newspaper. Gang argues that "until all students - lesbian, gay, straight, bisexual or any other identity - have equal access to ROTC, we can't allow the organization on campus, just as we wouldn't allow a whites-only organization to operate here (even if Brown's involvement might make it more progressive)."
1 November 2009 New York Times article "The R.O.T.C. Dilemma". Note: Discussing Harvard's attitude towards the military and gays, President Drew Faust said “Trying to maintain two values — nondiscrimination and national service — is very complicated ... It has us all tied in knots. There are contradictions. We make these sometimes awkward arguments that are less than pure consistency. Why do we do x and not y? Why do we have the helicopters? Why do I appear at the commissioning? There are enormous complexities and contradictions. We wind up creating compromises that are not philosophically consistent. The way to resolve these inconsistencies is to permit gays and lesbians to serve in the military.” The article notes: "Harvard will not pay the $150,000-a-year cross-registration fee that M.I.T. charges to have Harvard students take military science courses there. But university staff members are used to raise that money from wealthy alumni sympathetic to R.O.T.C. And Harvard accepts about $1 million a year from the military in the form of scholarships that cover the cost of tuition for cadets and midshipmen." As a result of such "knots", the number of students in ROTC at elite colleges remains low. Taylor Giffen, a Yale Air Force ROTC cadet who graduated in June, said “They’d see me in uniform, and ask, ‘Hey, are you in a play?’ ”
6 November 2009 Brown Daily Herald article "Herald Poll: Students more satisfied with advising". Note: A poll on a variety of issues, in which 77% of respondents approved of the way President Obama is handling his job, revealed that 41% of respondents said they would approve of reinstating ROTC, compared to 25% who said they would disapprove of reinstating it.
11 November 2009 Brown Daily Herald letter "University should welcome ROTC" by Keith DellaGrotta ’10. Note: DellaGrotta notes the recent poll of Brown students supporting ROTC and recommends that the university "lure greater numbers of ROTC cadets to campus by awarding course credit for ROTC classes and offering a shuttle service to Providence College. Brown students have opined and the ball is in the University’s court to fix its dismal ROTC program."
13 November 2009 Brown Daily Herald editorial "Return of the soldier". Note: Brown University's student newspaper cites the recent poll of Brown students supporting ROTC and says it is "unacceptably complacent" to wait for "Don't ask, don't tell" to be repealed before welcoming ROTC. It continued: "despite President Obama’s pledges, the policy is not necessarily nearing its end. In a poll of service members last year by the Military Times, 10 percent of respondents said they would decline to re-enlist if DADT were repealed, and 14 percent said they would consider doing so. Several factors suggest that these numbers overestimate the threat, but if even a small fraction followed through, the end of DADT would trigger a devastating recruiting crisis even as our military commitment to Afghanistan escalates. Brown alumni with military commissions could play a small but appreciable role in bolstering tolerance in the ranks and hastening the demise of DADT."
26 April 2010 Boston Globe article "Elite colleges thawing on ROTC: Harvard, others reconsider policies". Note: The more welcoming climate "has become pronounced since February, when Pentagon leaders for the first time advocated overturning the law that bans gays and lesbians from serving openly in the ranks." At Brown, undergraduate dean Katherine Bergeron, "pledged to do more to support students in ROTC, including finding ways to award them academic credit for their military courses".
26 April 2010 Brown Daily Herald letter "Bringing back ROTC would improve U. rankings" by David Curry ’51. Note: Curry notes that "Simmons is frustrated over Brown’s place in national rankings and feels the rankings do not give Brown credit for the excellence of its standards and programs. Maybe bringing back ROTC ... to Brown would help". Some college rankings include public service as a criterion.
29 April 2010 Brown Daily Herald article "‘Reserve’-ing judgment for ROTC: Forty years after ROTC’s eviction, attitudes soften on campus". Note: "Last week, Students For ROTC held its first two public events, a dinner hosting Brown ROTC alums and a panel discussion with military officers... certain factors, including the possible future reformation of “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” and a shift in attitude, point to the changed nature of a debate over ROTC at Brown". Dean of the College Katherine Bergeron said “I think it would be fruitful for us to look into ways of recognizing in some fashion the work that students do in the ROTC program (at [Providence College]).” "The form that such recognition would take hasn’t been decided yet, but more convenient transportation to PC and the possibility for academic credit for ROTC courses are two considerations, according to Bergeron. Support for students in ROTC isn’t new, she said. The University has a dean who oversees ROTC cadets and maintains a Web site with the program information. Top administrators, including President Ruth Simmons, were in attendance at last year’s commissioning ceremony, a visible sign of University support." However, there is currently only one Brown student doing ROTC, and the student on the Curriculum Committee who wrote the opinion in the late 1960s that called for the complete removal of ROTC, David Kertzer, is now Brown's Provost.
29 April 2010 Boston Globe editorial "To restore ROTC, end gay ban". Note: Citing both Harvard and Brown, the Globe observes that "Reserve Officers Training Corps units deserve a place at the nation’s elite universities, and Congress can make that happen easily by ending the military’s ban on openly gay and lesbian service members ... If more graduates of top colleges entered the services, the military and the schools alike would benefit". See letters here and here.
2 October 2010 American Council of Trustees and Alumni Speech by Anne Neal at Columbia Service & Society Conference. Note: ACTA president Anne Neal said "Each campus will need to ask itself tough questions. For example: What kind of presence do we want ROTC to have—an office, a building, a website? ... Are there ways that Columbia and other institutions might develop rigorous offerings in such fields as military history, anthropology, and game theory ...that would create ROTC programs commensurate with the outstanding academic programs of our greatest universities? ... there is a documented and disturbing dearth of courses on military and diplomatic history in elite and major universities. At Harvard today there is not one explicitly military history course offered this year or planned in the near future in the history department. There is only one course dedicated explicitly to US foreign relations. Out of 48 history faculty members, including visiting faculty, none are explicitly focused on foreign policy, diplomatic history or military history. Of Stanford’s full time history faculty, zero are focused on diplomatic or military history. At Brown, there are no courses focused on military history, and no faculty focused on diplomatic or military history, although there is one faculty member who is “probing the politics of knowing about and interacting with birds.”
22 December 2010 New York Times article "Elite Colleges Rethink Ties to R.O.T.C. After ‘Don’t Ask’ Repeal". Note: The number of students at elite colleges doing ROTC at other colleges is: Harvard 19, Columbia 6, Yale 4, Brown 1, and Stanford 15. Harvard is the only one to have cross-town Army, Navy and Air Force opportunities nearby.
26 January 2011 Brown Daily Herald article "Committee to consider ROTC’s return". Note: President Ruth Simmons convened a committee chaired by Dean of the College Katherine Bergeron "to make recommendations on the future of military education and recruitment on campus". The committee "will serve as a way to gauge the feelings of the Brown community and will issue a recommendation on the reinstatement of ROTC".
28 January 2011 Brown Daily Herald column "The ROTC Question" by Chris Norris-LeBlanc '13. Note: The writer notes that a "2003 survey of female veterans showed that 30 percent were victims of sexual assault while serving in various branches of the military" and argues for discouraging Brown students from entering the military.
31 January 2011 Brown Daily Herald column "The ROTC answer" by Heath Mayo '13. Note: Mayo writes that "the contention that opponents use to attack the proposal, which suggests that an ROTC program runs counter to campus culture, seems to contradict the sacred concept of diversity that Brown routinely heralds. Just as any conservative Protestant should respect groups on campus that promote lifestyles that run counter to her faith, so should an anti-war student be expected to respect her peers who wish to serve the military. By this analysis, the only choice that is consistent with Brown's culture and celebration of diversity is to allow students who wish to serve our country the opportunity to do so."
2 February 2011 Brown Daily Herald article "Twenty-four apply to ROTC committee". Note: The committee will consider whether to invite ROTC to Brown. "According to a University statement, the original decision to end Air Force and Naval ROTC in 1971 and 1972, respectively, stemmed from academic concerns, such as whether the program should have its own department and whether or not its courses should carry academic credit." However, "Abbott Gleason, professor emeritus of history and slavic studies, began teaching at Brown in the fall of 1968, shortly before ROTC was banned on campus. He said that the program was wildly unpopular at the time due to student attitudes about U.S. foreign military involvements. "At almost all of what you would call liberal colleges in the United States," he said, "attitudes flung wildly against ROTC because of the Vietnam War.""
2 February 2011 Brown Daily Herald column "Politics and patriotism in the ROTC issue? No thanks" by Chelsea Waite '11. Note: "Perhaps if more of us actually knew about U.S. military presences the world over and had met some of the women and men making up those presences, we would be in a better position to make the changes we want to see in our foreign policy... If we, and others like us, had more of a presence in, or exposure to, the armed forces, perhaps — dare I say it? — we would do more than passively disapprove of its actions... An ROTC presence at Brown would invite, I believe, a more dynamic discussion about the U.S. military and a more nuanced perspective from those inside and outside the program."
3 February 2011 Brown Daily Herald editorial "Reconsidering ROTC". Note: "Provost David Kertzer, in an e-mail to the editorial page board, further noted that "in the past, the faculty have voiced concerns" about the military's requirements, like the one requiring the University to grant academic credit for ROTC classes." However, as listed here and discussed here, many ROTC programs don't offer credit that counts for graduation.
4 February 2011 Brown Daily Herald column "When a statement becomes a policy" by Susannah Kroeber. Note: A student discusses her conversation with Professor Michael Vorenberg and lists the reasons she favors allowing ROTC at Brown.
8 February 2011 Brown Daily Herald column "ROTC and the tyranny of the masses" by Oliver Rosenbloom '13. Note: Rosenbloom writes that students who oppose ROTC value the tyranny of the majority higher than the individual freedom to choose to serve one's country. "Proponents of ROTC should not have to prove that it would have a beneficial impact for the entire school. Students who want to attend an elite academic institution and serve their country should have the freedom to do so, regardless of other students' political opinions."
11 February 2011 Brown Daily Herald op-ed "Don't Ask, Don't ROTC: Why it's still a bad idea" by Dave Morris '88. Note: Morris argues against a Navy ROTC program because it would require students to take some particular existing Brown courses in areas such as calculus and national security policy, and because failing out of Brown could mean being called up to serve as an enlisted person and gaining excessive weight could result in having to repay a stipend. See letter on 14 February.
14 February 2011 Brown Daily Herald letter "Requisites no reason to reject ROTC" by Jennifer Grayson '11. Note: Addressing concerns over ROTC course requirements, Grayson cites the more extensive requirements for pre-medical students.
25 February 2011 Brown Daily Herald column "Keep ROTC out" by Julian Park. Note: Park argues that universities are welcoming ROTC in order to increase their prestige.
2 March 2011 Brown Daily Herald letter "Distance deters ROTC participation" by Andrew Sia '12. Note: Sia describes the 45 minute commute each way for a Brown student wishing to do cross-town ROTC and writes "This 45-minute one-way trip is the reason why many Brown students — myself included — who have expressed interest in joining ROTC, ultimately do not join."
3 March 2011 Brown Daily Herald article "Campus debate on ROTC intensifies". Note: Provost David Kertzer '69 "was a member of the committee that examined ROTC policy in the 1960s" and "wrote a minority dissent rejecting the committee's recommendations to modify the on-campus ROTC program but not eliminate it entirely." At the time he wrote "The very idea that the faculty of Brown University has a ‘responsibility' to devise military training programs on campus must be seriously challenged".
3 March 2011 Brown Daily Herald column "Painting Brown Khaki" by Ian Trupin. Note: An undergraduate argues that Brown students wouldn't be able to influence the character of the military.
7 March 2011 Brown Daily Herald letter "ROTC should not receive special privileges" by Kevin Casto '13. Note: Casto argues against providing transportation for ROTC students to get to cross-town programs.
7 March 2011 Brown Daily Herald letter "LGBTQ’s against ROTC aren’t hypocrites" by Yvonne Yu '13. Note: Yu argues that "If some people do not want ROTC here for ideological reasons, they are not oppressing anyone's freedom of choice by expressing these opinions", though by carrying out their opinions they would.
14 March 2011 Brown Daily Herald op-ed "Confronting transgender discrimination in ROTC" by Maddy Jennewein '14. Note: The co-president of GenderAction claims that "Prospective soldiers undergo a medical examination in which anyone with prior genital surgery is rejected". This is not true for people whose surgery was done at birth, but doctors have been reluctant to do such surgery at birth in recent decades, making what would have been a non-issue concerning the military an issue today, as discussed on the Transgender issues page.
14 March 2011 Brown Daily Herald letter "Alums in service support ROTC reinstatement". Note: Fifteen write that "we believe the qualities that are the hallmark of a Brown graduate — passion, intellectual curiosity, diversity of perspectives — benefit the military as an organization".
16 March 2011 Brown Daily Herald article "Committee on ROTC updates community". Note: Dean Katherine Bergeron of Brown College reported on behalf of Brown's committee on ROTC that "the University will not need to offer academic credit for ROTC classes." This corrects the error in the 3 February editorial, as discussed in the Credit issues page, but no retraction was added to the editorial. In addition, in the article, "Bergeron also discussed her attendance at the Ivy Plus conference — a consortium of universities, including members of the Ivy League as well as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Chicago and Stanford — where deans from the universities discussed their respective plans to offer or not offer ROTC programs... Bergeron said it looks likely that Columbia, Yale and Stanford will do the same. If this were the case, Brown would be the only Ivy League university not to have a ROTC program on campus."
22 March 2011 Brown Daily Herald article "Herald poll: students divided on ROTC's return". Note: 43% approved and 24% disapproved; others were undecided or offered no opinion.
4 April 2011 Brown Daily Herald article "As ROTC scrutinized, military funding ignored". Note: The article discusses military research on campus, and how the original opposition to ROTC, including by former member of Students for a Democratic Society David Kertzer '69 P'95 P'98, who is now provost, was based on broad anti-military sentiments. Catherine Lutz, chair of the anthropology department and a member of the committee on ROTC, said military funding of research "leaves other areas of important research — like research into alternative energy and transportation systems or tropical disease — understaffed and underfunded." These examples seem odd, because the US military is taking steps to reduce its need to transport fuel, and faces concerns about tropical diseases far beyond those of US civilians.
13 April 2011 Brown Daily Herald article "Nearly half of students approve lifting campus ROTC ban". Note: Asked by the Herald "Would you approve of lifting the ban on ROTC?" 43% said yes, 24% said no, and 33% didn't take a stand. Among those with an opinion, 64.4% favored ROTC, compared with 64.5% at Columbia and 72.1% at Stanford.
13 April 2011 Brown Daily Herald op-ed "Students can change the military — by keeping ROTC out" by Julian Park '12. Note: A member of the Coalition Against Special Privileges for ROTC writes that "The military will not change just by throwing in more Brown students" and "Those who seek change, like Ehren Watada or Bradley Manning, are court-martialed."
14 April 2011 Brown Daily Herald op-ed "Changing the debate on ROTC — a socialist’s perspective" by Luke Lattanzi-Silveus '14. Note: A member of the International Socialist Organization argues that since DADT had nothing to do with why ROTC was effectively barred from campus in 1969, its repeal should be irrelevant to the return of ROTC. He also claims that the ROTC Vitalization Act of 1964 "required that military instructors be given the status of professor, without the instructors or course material being subject to review by the faculty or any other university body". This is wrong on two counts: the faculty members are subject to review by the university, and the university is not required by the law to give credit for courses it does not consider up to its standards. See letter on 20 April.
20 April 2011 Brown Daily Herald "Learning to lead: on the ground with ROTC". Note: ""I chose to do ROTC specifically because I did not want to do the academy experience," said Cadet Staff Sergeant and PC junior Amberly Glitz, one of only a handful of female students in the battalion. "I wanted to do some more normal activities in college to kind of have both worlds.""
23 April 2011 GoLocalProv article "Students and Faculty Oppose ROTC at Brown". Note: A coalition of students, faculty, and community members organized by The Brown Coalition Against Special Privileges for ROTC rallied on Brown University's Main Green. One of the issues they stressed was the Transgender issue, but "Myra Shays, President of Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbian and Gays of Greater Providence ... disagrees that reinstating ROTC would undercut Brown's support for the LGBT community."No one at Brown, LGBT or straight is required to join the ROTC. So no one is forced to subject him/herself to discrimination," she said in an email to GoLocalProv. "Some people will be philosophically offended. In the grand scheme of things, this rates far down on my list of worries.""
25 April 2011 Brown Daily Herald article "Conflicting ROTC camps face off". Note: Pro and anti-ROTC rallies took place side by side on the Main Green, with 35 anti and 15 pro. "Each group tried to drown out the other's speeches with music and chants" but there was some discussion between the groups, including over the contention of the anti-ROTC group that "Brown would be less safe if ROTC were again allowed on campus because of the military's record of sexual violence".
27 April 2011 Brown Daily Herald article "BUCC addresses ROTC, proposed team cuts". Note: At a Brown Community Council meeting, Katherine Bergeron, dean of the College and chair of the Committee on ROTC, said she "spoke with an assistant secretary of the Navy, who is interested in involving the University in a cross-institutional program... This plan would allow Brown students to travel to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology or College of the Holy Cross in Massachusetts to participate in their naval ROTC programs because no such programs are currently offered in Rhode Island. ROTC's current arrangement with Providence College would likely remain unchanged. At this point, the committee is not recommending changes to the 1969 resolution, which recognized ROTC programs as extracurricular activities, thereby rendering ROTC courses ineligible for University credit."
27 April 2011 Brown Daily Herald article "Forum examines ethics of ROTC". Note: At a Janus Forum Town Hall on the ROTC issue, two spoke in favor and two opposed. Professor of English William Keach argued against ROTC, saying that it's important that a university stand back and observe the military. "For me, it's not a question of aloofness or purity, but a question of engagement ... There are a lot of ways in which the University can learn about and participate in the U.S. military and remain independent and retain its intellectual status."
27 April 2011 GoLocalProv article "Brown Recommends Killing ROTC’s Return". Note: One comment noted "This report is inaccurate—particularly the headline. The Committee established to review the University’s relationship with ROTC has not issued any recommendations and no University action has been taken. What actually transpired at this meeting is that Dean of the College Katherine Bergeron, who chairs the Committee to review Brown’s relationship with ROTC, provided a progress report on the Committee’s work to the Brown University Community Council, a body representing the campus community."
12 May 2011 Inside Higher Ed op-ed "After ROTC's Return" by Jonathan Hillman. Note: The chairman of Brown Alumni for ROTC calls on the military and the universities to engage with each other. "Fewer places are better than the classroom for building civil-military bonds. When possible, faculty should collaborate with ROTC instructors. Imagine how an East Asian politics class might benefit from the experience of a naval officer who has been deployed throughout the region. Knowing only about the military as a fighting force, many students will be surprised by the intellectual firepower wielded by America’s men and women in uniform."
30 May 2011 Providence Journal op-ed "It’s past time to bring ROTC back to Brown" by Jonathan Hillman. Note: The chairman of Brown Alumni for ROTC writes that since repeal of DADT "Harvard, Yale, Stanford, and Columbia — peer institutions that also broke with the military during Vietnam — have already opened their doors to ROTC. Meanwhile, Brown has only taken the tentative step of forming a committee to study the issue.... ROTC was not even on the Brown Corporation’s meeting agenda on Friday — its last such meeting until October. Among the Ivies without ROTC programs, only Brown has yet to make its intentions clear."
3 August 2011 Brown University Memo from the minority on the ROTC Committee. Note: A minority of the committee urged the university not to see to expand cross-institutional ROTC opportunities, and their memo was released to the public following a 5 October 2011 faculty meeting. They cite Deaprtment of Defense regulations excluding transgender people from the military as conflicting with Brown's antidiscrimination policy.
7 September 2011 Brown Committee on the ROTC report "Brown and the Reserve Officers Training Corps: Past, Present, and Future". Note: A majority of the committee "recommends that the President engage in conversations with the Department of Defense to learn how Brown students might participate in Naval or Air Force ROTC programs currently unavailable to them, and to bring any proposal she might make regarding the expansion of ROTC opportunities back to the Faculty." The report also notes that "In 1862, the acceptance of Morrill land-grant funds mandated that the college offer military instruction". The committee contacted the Navy and learned "the Navy would indeed be interested in re-establishing a relationship with Brown, but the high cost of creating a new NROTC detachment makes it unlikely that the Navy would want to create an on-campus program at Brown anytime soon. The preferred solution might involve some kind of crossinstitutional partnership with an existing Naval ROTC unit".
8 September 2011 Brown Daily Herald article "ROTC committee issues final report: Fate of program’s 40-year ban from campus remains unclear". Note: Katherine Bergeron, Dean of Brown College, said that the recommendation in the report that the university president enter into discussions with the military was supported by a "small majority" of the committee. "Joshua Posner '71 ... was a student activist on campus during the Vietnam era and supported the effort to remove ROTC in protest of the war. He said the movement to end ROTC programs on campus in the late 1960s was largely a symbolic gesture in protest of the war rather than a strict opposition to the ROTC program specifically. "We opposed ROTC and effectively campaigned to have it thrown off campus as a protest during the anti-war period," he said. Posner said that today, Brown needs to be "fully engaged with the rest of the nation," and that not allowing ROTC on campus "contributes to the extreme stratification that is so much at the core of what's wrong with this country," citing the military's cultural and socioeconomic diversity."
15 September 2011 Inside Higher Ed article "Not Marching in Step". Note: "Brown is the last Ivy League holdout on the ROTC expansion issue. Harvard, Yale and Columbia Universities all approved the reintroduction of similar programs with little controversy earlier this year. Others never kicked ROTC off campus". The article refers to "the federal law barring transgender individuals from serving in the military", while in fact the policy on transgender people is a military regulation, not a law, and discussed as so in the report of Brown's ROTC committee.
19 September 2011 Brown Daily Herald column "ROTC expansion threatens the integrity of our community" by Julian Park '12. Note: Park claims that because of the Solomon amendment "Brown's relationship with Providence College — where our students participate in Army ROTC — has kept us funded" and "As a footnote in the report mentions, one member of the committee cautioned that "if the University were to expand its current relationship with ROTC, any decision to reduce that relationship at a later date would violate the Solomon Amendment."". This is wrong. If Brown prohibits ROTC on campus and allows its students to do ROTC elsewhere, it is in violation of the Solomon Amendment, which states that no funds may be provided "if the Secretary of Defense determines that that institution ... has a policy or practice ... that either prohibits, or in effect prevents ... the Secretary of a military department from maintaining, establishing, or operating a unit of the Senior Reserve Officer Training Corps ... at that institution." The only factor that has prevented Brown from being cited for violation of the Solomon amendment is that the Secretary of Defense has chosen not to invoke the Amendment despite Brown's policy. For more details, see this Solomon Amendment issues page.
1 October 2011 Providence Journal op-ed "Brown should follow peers, welcome ROTC" by Jonathan Hillman. Note: Referring to Brown's Committee on ROTC, Hillman writes "President Simmons can right the committee’s wrong when she delivers her final report to the Brown Corporation (the university’s governing body) next month. Rather than beginning with the committee’s muddled recommendations, she can offer a clear choice: Either ROTC is compatible with Brown’s mission, or it is not."
19 October 2011 Brown University Letter from President Ruth Simmons about the report of the ROTC committee. Note: President Simmons recommended affirming Brown's 1969 faculty resolution not to give any academic appointments to ROTC faculty, effectively barring on-campus ROTC due to provisions of the ROTC Vitalization Act of 1964. In contrast, other Ivy colleges have created special visiting professor or "Directory of ROTC" faculty positions to meet the requirements of the law. She urged discussion with the Department of Defense about expanding "cross-institutional" ROTC opportunities for Brown students at other colleges. She also called for Brown to work for inclusion of transgender people in the military.
19 October 2011 Brown Daily Herald article "Simmons: No change to campus ROTC ban". Note: President Simmons recommended expanding "cross-institutional" ROTC opportunities. "Currently, no institutions in Rhode Island provide Naval or Air Force ROTC programs, but Simmons said there is a nearby college currently exploring these options. Should one of these programs be approved, Brown could then pursue a partnership, Simmons said."
19 October 2011 Inside Higher Ed article "Falling (Partway) In Line". Note: Jonathan Hillman, chairman of Brown Alumni for ROTC, notes that not only is Brown not acting as a follower by belatedly following other Ivy colleges in making movements towards ROTC, but it has staked out the least ROTC friendly position of the Ivies.
20 October 2011 Brown Daily Herald editorial "A plea for ROTC’s reinstatement". Note: Brown's student newspaper urges the university to ask for on-campus ROTC, not just cross-institutional ROTC opportunities.
20 October 2011 Brown Daily Herald letter "Simmons misses opportunity on ROTC" by Jonathan Hillman '09. Note: The chairman of Brown Alumni for ROTC notes that Brown has taken the least welcoming position towards ROTC of all the Ivy universities.
20 October 2011 Boston Globe article "College resists a return to ROTC: Brown keeps policy from Vietnam era". Note: "Katherine Bergeron, Brown’s most prominent dean, said she expected the school’s board of trustees to ratify the decision by the end of its annual meeting Saturday." Phil O’Brien, a Navy veteran who graduated from Brown in 1956, said "The university has lost its way and taken a cowardly position that is offensive and contrary to its own mission statement". Jonathan Hillman, chairman of Brown Alumni for ROTC, noted that "They could have hosted Naval ROTC in the Ocean State".
22 October 2011 Boston Globe editorial "Brown should allow ROTC on campus". Note: "President Ruth Simmons, in explaining the committee’s position, pointed to the military’s ban on transgender recruits, its hierarchical command structure, as well as “recent wars undertaken by the country.’’ Yet those policies are set largely by civilians in Congress and the White House, not the military... This post-Vietnam rift between Pentagon and ivory tower has damaged both the military and the country. The military needs well-educated soldiers, sailors, and Air Force officers to meet the complex demands of modern warfare. And the country needs to get past the cultural divide that has politicized military service and risks turning the armed forces into regional institutions, with service members clustered in the South and Southwest. Bridging that divide has clear benefits - even amid understandable concerns about discrimination against transgender people, a minority who nonetheless deserve equal treatment. Faculty and students are right to advocate for their transgender peers. But a failure to acknowledge the military’s acceptance of Congress’s repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell’’ would send the wrong message. It would indicate that even major steps by the military won’t lessen the atmosphere of distrust." See letters in response here and here and responses to those letters here.
28 October 2011 Providence Journal op-ed "Brown moves toward accepting ROTC" by Anne Neal. Note: The president of the American Council of Trustees and Alumni applauds a decision by Brown University's trustees to open "an office on campus to assist veterans and students interested in ROTC". She urges the trustees to overcome faculty objections to associations with ROTC using frameworks that have proven acceptable at other top colleges.
29 October 2011 Providence Journal letter "Brown, ROTC, transgender" by Jonathan Hillman. Note: The chairman of Brown Alumni for ROTC writes "Having fought hard for the repeal of "don't ask, don't tell," Brown's peers opened their campuses not as a full-hearted embrace of the military and all its policies, but as a sign of good faith in an on-going process. By contrast, Brown's leadership appears to be demanding that the military remake itself in Brown's image before it even sits down at the same table."
7 November 2011 Brown Daily Herald article "One percent express interest in off-campus ROTC". Note: Quantitating the effect of ROTC on campus versus off campus, "Seven percent indicated they would be interested in joining a ROTC program only if it were offered at Brown's campus, and 1 percent reported they would be interested in another institution's program." The numbers were higher for men. See letter on 16 November.
16 November 2011 Brown Daily Herald letter "Interest in ROTC needs context" by Jonathan Hillman.'09. Note: Responding to a 7 November news story, Hillman argues that 7% interest in on-campus ROTC at Brown is an impressive number, and there would be more if students came to Brown because of on-campus ROTC. He argues that polling current Brown students about their interest in ROTC "is akin to surveying attendees of a vegan convention about their interest in hamburgers."
6 December 2011 Brown Daily Herald article "Campus ROTC office gains favor". Note: Dean of the College Katherine Bergeron said that an office, suggested by the Corporation, is likely to begin operating next year. Its mission is still uncertain but it would support student veterans and may direct prospective cadets to ROTC programs at nearby institutions and will "make visible the support the University is already giving". Others were interviewed and polled on the ROTC issue, and the policy towards transgender people in the military appears to be pivotal in attitudes towards on-campus ROTC.
18 December 2011 Providence Journal op-ed "The Ocean State deserves a Navy ROTC unit" by Jonathan Hillman. Note: The chairman of Brown Alumni for ROTC describes the key role played by Rhode Island in the history of the Navy, and noting Brown University's reluctance to host an ROTC program suggests that another university or the Naval War College be the hub for a statewide program.
27 May 2012 Brown University News item "Two Brown grads enter Marine Corps". Note: Dean of the College Katherine Bergeron offered remarks.
26 September 2012 Brown Daily Herald article "ROTC looks to increase campus involvement". Note: The Office of Student Veterans and Commissioning Programs "established in spring 2012 at the Corporation’s instruction, focuses on supporting students who are involved or would like to become involved with the military. The office is also charged with facilitating student participation in ROTC at other schools in Rhode Island."
2 October 2012 Brown Daily Herald editorial "Reconsidering ROTC". Note: The editors call on Brown's new president to "reconsider the campus ban on ROTC". They note: "We are quite proud of Brown’s reputation as an outspoken liberal institution. But this reputation may discourage students with other political beliefs or backgrounds from matriculating at Brown. This is a distinct loss to the community, as we could all benefit from thoughtful and rational debates with those with whom we disagree."
21 March 2013 Brown Daily Herald columns "Taking Sides: Should Brown bring ROTC back to campus?" by Dorothy Lutz ’13 and Mika Zacks ’15. Note: Lutz argues that Brown is creating "a counterproductive anti-military bias on campus" by being the lone Ivy League college to continue to effectively bar ROTC, and this reduces campus diversity. Zacks, who was a conscientious objector to the military draft in Israel, argues that just as she objected to having a non-combat role in the Israeli military, Brown should not allow any ROTC program to have its official sanction and thereby contribute to American "imperialist violence".
21 October 2014 Wall Street Journal op-ed "Vote for Tom Cotton—and Redeem Harvard". Note: A retired Harvard professor looks back at the era in which Harvard shunned ROTC, "A university conveys as much through its policies as it does in classrooms, and to dissuade students from considering military service could mean only one of several things: “Democracy needs no defenders,” or “This country is not worth defending,” or “Let some losers do the fighting for you”". She adds that "Although ROTC is now formally tolerated at Harvard, there has been no faculty initiative to educate for patriotism and military service" but doesn't elaborate on what such an initiative would look like. See responses on 27 October and 10 November.
10 November 2014 Wall Street Journal letter "ROTC Bans Still Limit Opportunity for Many" by Ron Harrison. Note: Commenting on letters of 27 October, the writer notes that Brown University's continued exclusion of ROTC from its campus deprives many of opportunities.
12 November 2014 Brown Daily Herald article "Serving Silently: Military culture on a civilian campus". Note: The article observes that "compared to other Ivy League schools, Brown lags behind in offering opportunities for students to engage with the military on campus." James Rattner '15, student coordinator at Brown's Student Veterans and Commissioning Programs Office, " said most of his peers seem to lack enough military knowledge to ask appropriate questions".

2015

4 February 2015 Brown Daily Herald article "Faculty endorses tie to Holy Cross ROTC program". Note: Brown is adding Navy and Army ROTC options based in Massachusetts for its students, in addition to its current Army ROTC option at Providence College. There will be "space in the Office of Student Veterans and Commissioning Programs, which was created in 2012 at the Corporation’s instruction and aims to support students who are interested or involved in the military". During the debate, "Philip Rosen, professor of modern culture and media, stressed the implications of the 1996 Solomon Amendment, which allows the U.S. Secretary of Defense to deny federal grants to institutions that prohibit or prevent ROTC or military recruitment on campus. Rosen said federal funding to the University may be threatened if ROTC programs are discontinued, adding that “Once the decision is made, it is made.”" However, that concern is not very realistic because even Republican administrations have avoided using the Solomon Amendment for ROTC, and the Supreme Court decision upholding the Solomon Amendment for recruiting made clear that the constitutionality was very different for ROTC.
5 February 2014 Brown Daily Herald column "ROTC: Return of the criminals" by Peter Makhlouf '16. Note: Makhlouf argues against ROTC, describing military training as "the art of killing and torturing" and concludes that "ROTC’s attempt to recruit academically elite students is a calculated attempt to rope the best and brightest into the industry of state-sanctioned violence". He criticizes the notion "that Brown students should be exposed to every potential career" and writes that allowing ROTC would be "normalizing a militant ethos on our campus through programming and information sessions would invalidate Brown’s status as a bastion of military opposition and anti-intervention sentiment".
9 February 2015 Brown Daily Herald letter "ROTC should not have campus presence" by Prof. William Keach. Note: An English professor maintains that ROTC having "an institutional presence at Brown ... compromises any university’s ability to function as a source of independent critical research and teaching". He did not give examples from his department or elsewhere. One commenter noted that "The mission of Brown University is "to serve the community, the nation, and the world by discovering, communicating, and preserving knowledge and understanding in a spirit of free inquiry, and by educating and preparing students to discharge the offices of life with usefulness and reputation"". Another asks "How can you have anything "independent" when predominantly only one "side" is represented?"
15 February 2015 Fox News article "Brown University student wants ROTC ‘criminals’ banned from campus". Note: The article describes the anti-ROTC op-ed by Brown student Peter Makhlouf "earned him criticism from readers who posted comments to his Op-Ed."
September 2015 Brown Alumni Magazine article From the President by Christina Paxson. Note. The president of Brown University announced progress towards having "cross-town" Navy and Air Force ROTC opportunities in addition to the current cross-town Army ROTC arrangement. "The 2011 repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” and the full acceptance of gays and lesbians into the military was a precipitating factor in our current expansion of ROTC... I look forward to signing agreements to bring Naval and Air Force ROTC opportunities back to our students, and to Commencement weekend, when we will recognize and honor our students and alumni who provide public service leadership through military service."
26 October 2015 Brown University News article Cadets represent ROTC renaissance at Brown. Note: "With renewed Air Force and Naval partnerships, a new office to support military-affiliated students, and a notable uptick in the number of students participating in the Army program, the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps is experiencing a renaissance at Brown."
20 November 2015 Brown Daily Herald article "Brown to allow students to join two new military programs". Note: The university finalized arrangements for Brown students to do ROTC at other institutions after this was authorized by a faculty vote in February. Karen McNeil, program director of the Office of Student Veterans and Commissioning Programs said “Even just sitting next to a veteran or an ROTC student in class, seeing them as a person and knowing that people who go into the military are normal people, having that kind of interaction is very important.”
1 December 2015 Brown Daily Herald editorial "Expanding ROTC options". Note: "We applaud the University for expanding ROTC options by forming two new partnerships that will let students participate in the Naval and Air Force Reserve Officers’ Training Corps next semester. Before this expansion, Brown students only had the option of participating in an Army ROTC partnership with Providence College, and Brown and Dartmouth were the only Ivy League schools to not give students an option for participating in Navy and Air Force ROTC programs." The editorial also discusses how this can bring diversity to discussions on political issues on campus.
30 December 2015 Wall Street Journal op-ed "At Last, Some Campus Sanity: ROTC Gains" by Jonathan E. Hillman and Cheryl Miller. Note: "Yale, with 41 midshipmen, boasts the largest NROTC unit in the Ivy League. Harvard senior Charlotte Falletta was recognized as one of the top 10 Army cadets in the nation... There are plenty of opportunities to improve recruitment efforts. Cornell, MIT and other universities allow prospective students to indicate their interest in the military on their application and pursue ROTC scholarships. Once admitted, interested students receive more information and guidance from ROTC staff. More institutions should adopt this practice... Faculty should also consider designing courses that meet both ROTC and university standards, such as Professor Paul Kennedy ’s popular military history course at Yale... As former Secretary of Defense Bob Gates told an audience at Duke University five years ago: “A return of ROTC back to some of these campuses will not do much good without the willingness of our nation’s most gifted students to step forward.” But if this year’s talented graduates are any indication, many more young Americans will answer that call."
15 September 2016 GoLocalProv article "Brown Renewing ROTC Ties With Navy, Air Force After Campus Ban". Note: "In 2015, Brown faculty voted to renew the Navy and Air Force affiliations. The University signed new agreements with the service branches that will be celebrated at the Sept. 16 ceremony."
16 September 2016 WPRI TV report "Brown reinstates ties to ROTC that it cut during Vietnam War". Note: Some video from the ceremony at Brown is included.
17 September 2016 Associated Press article "Brown Reinstates Ties to ROTC after Vietnam War-era Cut". Note: The Navy and Air Force units for Brown students will be in Worcester Massachusetts, 40 miles away.